A Lovely Year of Finishes – Page 36 – Sew Bittersweet Designs

Sew Intertwined Pillow

19 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Sew Intertwined QAL, Stripper Quilt / By Melissa Dunworth

Ok, so I know that I finished my Sew Intertwined quilt top forever ago, like this summer and I still haven’t gotten around to quilting it, but I did finish the pillow to go with the quilt last week! And if I’m being perfectly honest, and really, why shouldn’t I be, I do actually still plan to add a solid gray border around the outside, so I guess the top isn’t 100% finished.

I’m hoping that my new pillow will inspire me to finish this quilt – do I see my goal for March A Lovely Year of Finishes…just maybe!

I decided to quilt this pillow exactly as I plan to quilt the Dresden in the center of the quilt, with radiating 1/4″ lines in the colors of the quilt: white, green, pink, and orange. I love the overall effect.

Here’s a bit more of a close up on the quilting.

For the back I decided to do a 3 button closure, a first for me. I am really happy with the results (I didn’t follow a tutorial, just did what looked and felt right). The reason the buttons look like they are pulling so much is the pillow form is just a touch too big. I need to order a custom sized one, the ones at JoAnns were all either a touch big or a touch small. I suppose I could make my own…but then that would require even more work and it might never get done! LOL!

This week my goal is to finish the 3 more blocks for my stripper row, I finished 2 last week. I also have 3 bee blocks I need to make. I’m hoping I can get it all done. I’ve been a touch distracted from my sewing with my hubby back home 🙂

Oh yes, and there is a fantastic giveaway that I want to share with you, it’s Monday after all and giveaways are a great way to start the week! My friend Shirley from SimpleSew is celebrating her Blogaversary this week and is having a little party. Make sure you head on over and check it out!!! And don’t forget that my welcome home giveaway from Contemporary Cloth is open until February 13th, still lots of time to enter and join in our homecoming celebration!

January Winners – A Lovely Year of Finishes

9 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts / By Melissa Dunworth

Can I just say how blown away I was last month! This group has been amazing! Incredibly supportive of one another and the number of finishes created as just totally awesome! All told we had 150 finishes linked up for the month of January! I’m so proud of all of us and if you didn’t hit your goal, no worries, February is a new month!

Now, on to the extra fun part of finishing and linking up – PRIZES!

1. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge

The winner is Ellie Q

2. $10.00 Gift Certificate from Contemporary Cloth

The winner is Beth

3. Choice of $15 or 2 charm packs from Stitch n’ Giggles

The winner is Muriël

4. Charm Pack donated by Melissa and Shanna

The winner is Jessica

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Winners will be notified by email, so look for a message from Shanna or myself.

I would like to take a moment to thank our wonderful sponsors, you have added such a wonderful and fun element to this year long party! Thank you so much for your support, this is going to be a great year!

This month’s goal setting party is open til the 7th. So please make sure to add your link here with Shanna or here with me. You only have to link-in once as we share the linky party. I can’t wait to see what you all are working on!

A Lovely Year of Finishes – February Goal Setting Party

15 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts, Stripper Quilt / By Melissa Dunworth

I can’t believe it is already February 1st, how did that happen? The year is already 8.3% over and it just started! In January alone this amazing group of stitchers had over 120 finishes! Can you believe that?!? I was just so proud to have finished my first quilt of the year and I can’t wait to move on to my next project for 2013. This one is not an entire quilt and I won’t even find out what the finished top will look like until almost the end of the year. I will be working on the next row for my Strip Quilting Group.

My partner in crime, Shanna, made the top row and the queen for this particular quilt is Brookquilt (Shelley) and her theme is “Do Strippers Make More When They Ovulate?” Shelley made the bottom row. Now I already know that Shelley loves Kaffe Fassett fabrics so I will be pulling from my stash. The requirements for this particular quilt are that we use Kona Black (provided) and bright saucy colors. Here are the fabrics I will be pulling from:

I’m not sure why but the colors are a bit off in the picture, sorry about that. My drop deadline date is February 28th, so wish me luck that I can have this done. I will also be working on several other bee blocks for Bee Awesome (the last month) and Do.Good Stitches Trust Circle. If I’m feeling really scrappy I would like to get borders on my Sew Intertwined quilt and get it basted…but we’ll see about that.

So what do you have planned for February?!?

Add your blog post or flickr photo (with appropriate descriptions) to the linky party below.

**Please note, the linky party is the same here and over at Shanna’s, so there is no need to enter twice **

Make sure you check out the details of 2013 ~ A Lovely Year of Finishes found here or here, we’ve also added a Q&A Page for you.

Oh and Prizes!!! What would a party be without prizes? The prizes for February are as follows:

1. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge

2. $15.00 Gift Certificate from Contemporary Cloth

3. Choice of $15 or 2 charm packs from Stitch n’ Giggles

4. $15.00 Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop

5. Hex-A-Holic Handbook from Paper Pieces

6. Fat Quarter Bundle of Riley Blake Designs

6 winners will be chosen by Mr. Random for those that post here and the wrap-up at the end of the month with a completed finish.

A Lovely Year of Finishes – January Finishes Party!

22 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts / By Melissa Dunworth

January is finally starting to wind down, which means we have come to the end of our first linky party! I think it can be categorically agreed upon that this first month was a rousing success. There are more than 350 people finishing with us over on Flickr. We had 218 entries into our goal setting party and I cannot wait to see all the finishes for this month. Remember you can link up here or over at Shanna’s blog, Fiber of All Sorts, no need to sign up twice.

Here is my finish for January 2013 – I am so excited because I finished it with plenty of time to spare but it also went to a loving home who needed a little sunshine on the day it arrived. (I blogged about it here.)

Now, it’s your turn, what did you finish?!? Remember in order to be eligible for prizes you need to have linked up to our first party as well as this finishes party. If you didn’t link up to the first party we would still love to see what you finished, you just will not be eligible for prizes this month. The next goal setting party will go up on February 1st and we have added some fantastic sponsors for next month! So Grab a button and show us your work!

And as a reminder, here are the awesome prizes for this month:

Prizes for January are as follows:

1. $20.00 Gift Certificate from the Quilting Lodge

2. $10.00 Gift Certificate from Contemporary Cloth

3. Choice of $15 or 2 charm packs from Stitch n’ Giggles

4. Charm pack donated by Shanna and Melissa

4 winners will be chosen by Mr. Random for those that posted here and at the goal setting party.

A Lovely Year of Finishes – January Mid-Month Check In

21 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes / By Melissa Dunworth

Can you believe that January is already half over?!? What the what? How did that happen!!! This month is just flying by completely! I have big news to report – not only did I finish my goal for the month, I also finished all my bee blocks for this month! The next 16 days of sewing belong to me. I really want to make 3 journal covers and I am still making hexies. Don’t they just look awesome?!? I will be showing off the rest of my finishes later this week.

How are your projects coming along for the month? Link up below and show us!!! (Remember you can link up here or over with Shanna at Fiber of All Sorts, no need to enter twice. If you need help linking up there are links to tutorials on the Lovely Year of Finishes page.)